All of the albums are regular commercial releases and the 1992-2000 products
can be readily found for reasonable prices. The 2015 set from Intrada, though not limited in
quantity, still sold for an initial price of $30.

AWARDS

Winner of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe.

Buy it... on the impressive 2015 2-CD set if you seek to conduct a
definitive study of one of the most effective film scores of all time,
or on the immense 2000 re-recording if you want to hear that classic
music translated decently into contemporary sound quality.

Avoid it... on all the albums if you recognize, like many John
Williams collectors do, that this remains a great score only truly
appreciable in the context of the film, a challenging listening
experience on album for merely casual entertainment.

Jaws: (John Williams) The first film to ever gross
more than $100 million, 1975's Jaws also represented the
mainstream debut of director Steven Spielberg. An incredibly well
conceived concept and outstanding screenplay scared audiences in such a
timeless fashion that the film is still effectively terrifying several
decades after its release. A massive shark terrorizes a tourist beach
destination on America's East Coast, killing people randomly and sending
the town into a panic. Several false alarms cause tourism in the area to
take a hit despite the efforts of local politicians to downplay the
problem. The leading trio of the story set out on a relatively small
boat to catch the shark and get more of a battle than they could have
ever bargained for. The film spawned a franchise and continues to be
respected as one of the great horror entries of all-time. One undeniable
reason for the film's great memorability relates to its striking score
by composer John Williams, who had previously worked with Spielberg on
Sugarland Express. When Williams first invited the director to
his studio and played on a piano the two-note theme (E-F, E-F, E-F...)
he had conjured to represent the great white shark in Jaws,
Spielberg responded by saying something along the lines of "you're
kidding, right?" Fortunately for both, Williams wasn't kidding, and thus
was born a film music and silver screen legend. Spielberg was still an
up and coming director, with only a few small, successful films under
his belt, but Williams was already an Academy Award winner and the
composer of choice for large-scale disaster films. His popular scores of
the early 1970's for The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake,
and, most notably, The Towering Inferno had offered a glimpse of
the symphonic rebirth that Williams was initiating in Hollywood at the
time. He would go on to earn Academy Award wins for both Jaws and
Star Wars within a two year span, elevating him to a status of
the top composer of the 1970's. The production of Jaws was a near
disaster during its shooting, mostly due to "Bruce," the mechanical
shark that was useless 90% of the time, and Spielberg was counting on a
strong score with a dark and sweeping identity to help save the
production.

One can truly understand Spielberg's surprise when
Williams produced a title theme for Jaws consisting of a
repeating two-note phrase. On the piano, it sounded silly, but when
performed by the string section of an orchestra, both men were surprised
by the monstrous thematic creation they had stumbled upon. There is no
serious debate about the functionality of the music in the film. Part of
the film's dominant success was due, directly, to its relatively
deceptive use of music, however. The ingenious idea of using the
mindless two-note progression to represent the shark is effectively
applied to the score by its tempo or even by its absence. The two-note
progression was meant to match the blood pressure of the shark, not that
of the audience. Many people mistakenly believe that the theme was
intended to reflect the horror level of the audience. In fact, the idea
represents the internalized zeal of the shark itself, a flow that
Williams and Spielberg allowed the audience to listen in on. The theme
increases its pace as the shark gets excited, and it is absent from
scenes in which the shark isn't anywhere near the present locale, most
notably in the false alarm scenes of mistaken identity. The shark's
primitive and brutal hunting instincts make the structurally simplistic
two-note theme into the embodiment of the shark that Spielberg had
struggled to obtain with the actual, physical beast that he had built
for the film. Even if you see a fin in the water, if Williams' theme
isn't heard, then there's no reason to worry or panic. A deep tuba and
horn motif that actually serves as the primary theme for the film is
usually presented on top of this simple ostinato, though this idea is
truly overshadowed by its underlying rhythm. The theme's concert version
and the cue "Man Against Beast" both build to a wondrous crescendo of
melodramatic movie music fantasy on strings that is pure Williams in
other-worldly style. Accompanying the title theme is a pleasant, if not
jubilant theme for the cozy beach town of Amity, one which provides a
handful of thematic bursts that serve as early evidence of Williams'
talent for capturing the Americana spirit. The most enjoyable theme in
the film is that for the Orca, the boat optimistically sailing off to
dispatch the shark. It is here that Williams offers his swashbuckling
spirit of adventure that is destined for a very dark turn as the animal
eventually prevails over the craft.

The enjoyable statements of adventure music in
Jaws accompany the Orca as it sets off and initially shows some
success against the shark, highlighted in "Man Against Beast." This cue
prompted Williams to define the lengthy duel as having a "pirate spirit"
that necessitated music that rolls along with jovial sport. Williams
slowly takes that uplifting spirit and transfers it into one of
increasing panic and desperation as the Orca comes under
life-threatening attack, a back-and-forth of motif struggles until the
ultimate timpani roll declares relief as the decapitated shark's blood
fills the ocean waters. The narrative of Williams' approach to
Jaws is absolutely superb, a tighter-woven progression through
the emotional realms than heard in his sequel score a few years later.
Despite the awesome power and effectiveness of the score as heard in the
film, however, the mass majority of the music doesn't make for one of
Williams' better album experiences. For most listeners, Jaws is a
work of fine craftsmanship to appreciate intellectually on album rather
than enjoy with casual ease. The sense of flighty adventure on the high
seas during the chase sequence offers the only really accessibly
listenable material on album. Who really wants to listen to the shark's
theme on snowy day in Montana? Many people have suggested correctly that
Williams' Jaws 2 is a better and more consistent listening
experience on album. Despite this fact, the first film's score
understandably exists on a variety CD albums. The original LP and 1992
MCA CD feature about half an hour of music that Williams rearranged and
re-recorded for the sole purposes of the album, and this was for a long
time the only available music from the picture. Given public acceptance
of the "re-recording for album" practice through the years, this album
was considered satisfactory by most. In 2000, a sudden flurry of
activity included the announcement by Varèse Sarabande that
composer/conductor Joel McNeely would be conducting the Royal Scottish
Orchestra in a performance of the entire Jaws score, scheduled
for release later that year. Before that could be recorded, however,
Universal decided to hasten the project of releasing 51 original minutes
of Jaws music (not the re-recordings done in 1975 for the LP) on
an album to coincide with the much hyped collector's DVD release
celebrating the 25th anniversary of the film.

For the most casual fans of Williams' music, the best
bet on album was long the 2000 remastered release of the original
Jaws score, though there are those who regularly prefer Williams'
typically strong rearrangements for his albums (The Fury is a
good example of such disparity). If sound quality is your concern, then
the RSO re-recording might be preferred, though the intimate sense of
danger experienced during the original recordings of the Jaws
themes is lost a bit by the echoing sound of the large, dynamic
performance. That re-recording does feature some different tempi and
instrumentation during key sequences, and this may bother listeners who
are very familiar with the original. Williams had a direct say in how
the music was presented on the 1992 and 2000 releases of the two
original Jaws recordings, so the cues are rearranged and renamed
in parts of those albums to suit his wishes. In 2015, Intrada Records
sought to finally produce the most definitive release of the score,
revisiting both the film and album recordings with the intent of
providing a complete presentation of the work and clean up its sound
quality using newer digital mastering technologies. The score's original
film version has always suffered from issues with clicking, hiss, and
other artifacts on its studio tapes, and its three-channel spread was
made in such a way as to really prohibit a true stereo experience. At
times, alternate takes had to be used on the 2000 album rather than
those heard in the film. The 2015 album finally uses technology to
salvage those tapes with better results, though don't expect a vibrant
stereo soundscape to result. The Intrada album, especially in the film
recording on its first CD, does sound noticeably improved in its clarity
of instrumental spread. The many alternate takes presented on the set
are a pleasure to study, mainly to hear the composer and director
struggle to find the right tone of malice in the score's later cues.
That album also features, after the 1975 re-recording on the second CD,
a wealth of source material recorded by Williams for the film's on-shore
sequences. Overall, outside of two or three cues led by the phenomenal
"Man Against Beast," Jaws is not something you can sit and listen
to for any great length of time. Study and admire its constructs and
intelligent application, but don't expect it to freely entertain without
forcing you into a more contemplative analysis of its purpose.
Regardless of its arrangement for the albums, the score's application in
context is a stroke of genius, one that endures as a singular triumph in
the history of film music. @Amazon.com: CD or
Download

Music as Written for the Film: *****

Score as Heard on the 1992 MCA Records Album: ****

Score as Heard on the 2000 Decca Records Album: *****

Score as Heard on the 2000 Varèse Sarabande Re-Recording: ****

Score as Heard on the 2015 Intrada Set: *****

Overall: *****

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.76
(in 73 reviews)and the average viewer rating is 3.65
(in 345,793 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

The packaging of all of the albums is extensive; all are very informative
about the film and score. The 2000 Re-recording contains the complete score with
cues in the order in which they appeared in the film; Jown Williams rearranged the
other two albums' cues to his liking. The 2000 re-recording album's liner does
contain a few errors in the track title names during its commentary by Michael
McDonagh and Robert Townson. The Decca album contains notes from Williams,
Spielberg, and music producer Laurent Bouzereau. The 2015 Intrada set's booklet
adds extensive album-related information from Mike Matessino and throws in
Spielberg's original LP notation for good measure.